But of all plagues, good Heaven, thy wrath can send, Save me, oh, save me, from the candid friend!

Canning replied with a speech nearly three hours long described by Lord Palmerston as "so powerful that it gave a decisive turn to the debate". Canning struck up friendships with the then-future Lord Liverpool as well as with Granville Leveson-Gower and John Hookham Frere.

George Canning FRS (11 April 1770 – 8 August 1827) was a British statesman and politician who served as Foreign Secretary and briefly Prime Minister.